


Tough Love

by afflatussolace



Series: where you go fate will surely follow [8]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Comedy, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Female Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Fluff, Gen, Lalafell Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Patch 5.0: Shadowbringers Spoilers, Post-Canon, Pregnancy, alisaie being an overbearing sister-in-law, alphinaud graha and krile are mentioned but don't really appear
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:42:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27162656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afflatussolace/pseuds/afflatussolace
Summary: The only thing alisaie isn’t willing to provide her sister-in-law is some peace and quietReuploaded from myblog. For the ffxivwrite2020 event held on tumblr.
Relationships: Alisaie Leveilleur & Warrior of Light, Alphinaud Leveilleur/Original Character(s), Alphinaud Leveilleur/Warrior of Light
Series: where you go fate will surely follow [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1971088
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	Tough Love

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt #08 - Clamor  
>  _"shout loudly and insistently"_

  
  


“ABSOLUTELY NOT!”

Illya has no idea why she’d even bothered asking, and now she’s paying for her naivety with a persistent ringing in her ear… and a very crossed elezen woman glaring daggers down at her. 

The lalafell never truly got why her husband had always been so scared of his sister’s temper - infamous and fiery as it can get…until now. If Alphinaud were as cool as ice, and a man who had a love for solving problems with a great deal with diplomatic words, Alisaie would be the type to stick her rapier up the rear of anyone who’d think to disagree. 

And given the blazing fury burning in Alisaie’s eyes right now, Illya was all but certain that she’d be tossed into the pits of hell if she dared argue, pregnant or not.

“By gods, Illya! I don’t understand you! How can you keep thinking of working when you’re carrying a baby?! It’s like.. you have a death wish or something!” 

If the Warrior of Light had asked to wrestle a primal or charge headlong into a battle despite her far more vulnerable state as of the current, she’d have thought Alisaie’s words to certainly be warranted. But surely, a quick trip to the conjurer’s guild in Gridania wasn’t quite as life-threatening as the taller woman would make it out to be. 

It wouldn’t be the first time, and Illya swears, not her last volunteering her time and efforts to the guild she’s owed much to while she’s been reduced to near worthlessness. Healing the sick and providing mentorship to the junior conjurers was but the least she can do, what she believes she has to continue doing. If she had no use in battle now, and was forced to swear off hard labour by all of the members of the scions combined, then what else aside from chores could she do? 

And even then, Alisaie had been insistent on keeping Illya work free in her own home. Attempts to pick up brooms and dish rags thwarted again and again with angry yells and a quick slap to her wrist. 

The only thing she can do, and the only thing she has been doing since Alisaie first stepped into the house was to sit on the couch, head hung low in shame as her sister-in-law towered over her with arms crossed over her chest as if she’d just grounded her own child. Illya would never have thought she’d see the day Alisaie would agree so wholeheartedly with her brother when he complained to her about Illya’s continuous trips outside despite the delicate package she carried in her tummy.

“A-ah… S-sorry-” there’s something of a sheepish, embarrassed tone in her voice as the lalafellin apologizes, hand raised to begin twirling strands of her own hair around her finger.

“I swear.. You have no regard for yourself at all! If not for you, at least think of your baby!” 

Illya didn’t exactly have plans to be lectured and told off in her very own home when she woke up that morning, and yet it wasn’t unexpected either. From the moment she’d read the note Alphinaud had left on her bedside table, saw Alisaie’s name written in big, bolded letters, she’d instantly felt dread creep up her spine. He certainly knew how to keep her restrained even in his absence. 

“Didn’t you hear what Krile say about exerting yourself too much?? What do you plan on doing if you collapsed and nobody was there to help you?!” 

“Alisaie-”

“What if something happened to the baby?! What if something happened to you?! I wouldn’t be able to live with myself! Or answer to Alphinaud!”

“Um… Alisaie-”

“I said NO, Illya! Ask me to let you leave for work again, and I swear to hells I will-”

“Alisaie, I just wanted to tell you I’m hungry…”

There’s a chilling silence that hung in the air for a moment as Alisaie stops to widen her eyes, before turning her head away with rapidly reddening cheeks. Or at least, Illya thought it to be a blush.. For all she knew, Alisaie’s boiling blood could have begun rising and burned her head somehow. 

“O-oh.” 

It was hard not to point Alisaie’s pout and puffing of cheeks, but many Illya’s known her for enough years to know that that would be a grave mistake. With a quick turn of her heels, Alisaie leaves to brisk walk to the kitchen, and Illya dares herself to stand from the couch to follow behind her.

“Don’t you dare. I’ll get you something to eat.”

“When did you start learning to cook, Alisaie?”

Alisaie pauses to stare blankly at the stove top, eyes darting around the room as if she were a fish out of water, a woman completely out of her element. Were she to be honest, she’d admit to not having operated any kitchen appliances more complex than a toaster. And yet the lack of a verbal answer from her is in itself the clearest answer she could have given to Illya.

“….Doesn’t matter! How hard can it be?” 

That line was almost always telling of someone with incredible inexperience in the kitchen, and it was a line she’d even heard her husband say when he’d first started learning to cook, before proceeding to completely burn his sunny side ups. They certainly were twins, after all.

A stifled laugh nearly causes Alisaie’s to turn and shoot a glare down towards her shorter family, though Illya has learned from Alphinaud’s signature technique of whistling and avoiding eye contact to act nonchalant. 

But whereas Alphinaud was mostly unashamed of admitting to his own shortcomings and asking for help when he needed, there were few other people Illya knew in this world to be more prideful than Alisaie. If she didn’t offer to help Alisaie now, the woman surely would not ask for it any time soon.

“I could help you… if you want?”

“Hells no!” Alisaie retorts and her hands plant to her hips. “Go back to the living room and rest.”

“I won’t exert myself.” Illya only smiles warmly in return, and Alisaie has to resist the urge to grab Illya and shake her by the shoulders. “Cooking’s not that hard, remember?”

She lets out an audible growl, though Illya seems completely unfazed, blinking her wide violet eyes up at her until Alisaie could do nothing but sigh heavily and sink her shoulders.

“Alright, fine! But you aren’t going anywhere near the stove or knives, got it?”

“Promise. Nophica strike me if I do.”

Finally, for the first time since Alisaie’s arrival, the knots of her brows stop furrowing and relaxes, and the corner of her lips turns upwards into a smile. She doesn’t quite say it, but even if Illya were to go against her word, she’d sooner take the bolt for her than to let any harm come to her own dearest friend and soon to be nephew or niece. 

“Oh, I forgot to mention. I’ll be away next week, so G’raha will be coming in to watch over you instead.”

“Oh thank the twelve.”

“Say that again?”

“…..Nothing.”


End file.
